KING Charles has been criticised for using a visit to a surplus food project on his birthday as a “PR opportunity”.

On his 76th birthday, the monarch visited one of the first two Coronation Food Hubs in Deptford in south-east London.

The Coronation Food Project was launched last year and has raised £15 million to open hubs at Deptford and Knowsley in Merseyside.

He was presented with a homemade birthday card by a group of schoolchildren who sang Happy Birthday and volunteers from the Felix Project, who were dressed in the charity’s signature green and who will run the London hub, clapped and waved flags as Charles stepped out from his Bentley.

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Scottish anti-monarchy group Our Republic has said if the King wanted to make a real difference, he could redirect enormous profits he receives from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall to food banks.

The group’s treasurer Tristan Grayford told The National: “Charles could make a real difference by redirecting the £1 billion profits his household receives annually from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall to those in need.

“With these funds, he could fully support the fundraising needs of food banks for years, yet he chooses not to. Instead, he uses visits as PR opportunities for himself.

“This choice speaks volumes about who is truly benefiting from the royal charade.”

A Channel 4 Dispatches and Sunday Times investigation revealed the King and the Prince of Wales’s private estates have struck rental deals worth millions of pounds with the armed forces, the NHS and state schools.

It examined the land and properties the two leading royals own through the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall.

(Image: Justin Tallis/PA Wire) The investigation reported that last year the Duchy of Lancaster agreed a deal to store a new fleet of electric ambulances, owned by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust in London, in one of the estate’s warehouses at a cost of £11.4m over 15 years.

It also said the Duchy of Cornwall had charged the navy more than £1m since 2004 to build and use jetties and moor warships on the Cornish coastline.

The duchy will also earn around £600,000 over the lifetime of six different leases agreed with local state schools, the investigation found.

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The King’s annual income from the Duchy of Lancaster rose by 5% to £27.4m in 2023/24, figures show.

The Duchy of Cornwall is a similar portfolio valued at more than £1bn which provides an income for the heir to the throne.

Gun salutes were fired in Green Park by The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery and at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company as part of the military’s traditional celebrations on the sovereign’s birthday, and bells rang out at Westminster Abbey where the King was crowned in 2023.

On the eve of his birthday, Charles had walked the red carpet at the global premiere of Gladiator II, meeting stars Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal.